Mum Hunt

1 It all started in French. Well, sort of. I was sitting in French, which was our last lesson that day, feeling fidgety because I'd already finished my work and I had nothing left to do. I was dying to speak to Holly. Holly is my best friend and I'd been waiting all day to ask her advice about something. Holly is an expert at knowing what to do in difficult situations. She says it's because her mum treats her like a grown-up and lets her watch anything she wants on TV and ask any questions she wants about it afterward. Sometimes Holly and her mum stay up late discussing all sorts of things, which makes me really envious because I'm not allowed to stay up late to discuss anything at all. Anyway, Holly had been away at the dentist all morning, otherwise I'd have spoken to her earlier. If we'd had an afternoon break I'd have spoken to her then, but our school has abolished afternoon breaks so we can finish earlier like they do on the Continent or something. That means we're expected to go from lunchtime until three o'clock without talking to each other, which if you ask me is a form ofchild abuse.Well, it is for me. I'm a bit of a chatterboxat least, that's what Dad says. Matthew, my brother, calls me a stuck record, which I object to because it implies that I say the same things over and over again, which I don't. He says our great-aunt Esmerelda could talk the hind leg off a donkey too, and that's why I got named after her, but Dad says I got named after her because my mother really liked the name. Nobody calls me Esmerelda, though. They all call me Esmie for short. Anyway, that afternoon we'd been set an exercise by our French teacher, Miss Murphy (who'd left the room to sort out the teacherless class next door), that involved translating a whole list of different types of food from English into French. "Guess what?" I hissed, leaning over to see how my friend was getting on with her answers. "Get off!" Holly pushed my hand away as I tried to pencil in the wordpommefor her next toapple."Icando this myself, you know, Esmie!" "Sorry." It's just that Juliette, our au pair, is French and I've started getting top marks in French at school ever since she came. Holly swears she's not jealous but she gets pretty annoyed with me for always finishing things before she does. "Last night Juliette came up with this ideaand I want to know whatyouthink of it!" I announced. Holly looked at me. I knew that would get her attention. But I wanted to tell her the whole storyfrom the beginningso I did. "It started when Juliette said something in French that Matthew didn't understand but I did!" I began proudly. (Dad has this idea that he can use Juliette to turn Matthew and me into fluent French speakers overnight if he gets her to talk to us in nothing but French. Unfortunately Juliette came to England to practice her English so there's been a bit of a clash.) Holly crinkled up her nose. "I think it's really daft, your dad making you talk French every mealtime." "It's noteverymealtime. We're allowed to speak English at breakfast and lunch and all day if we want at the weekends. Anyway, Matthew didn't understand her and I did!" "So?" Holly grunted, going back to her work. Holly doesn't understand what it's like to have to compete all the time with an older brother for your parent's attention. She's an only child. Her parentRees, Gwyneth is the author of 'Mum Hunt' with ISBN 9780385901239 and ISBN 0385901232.